Home Media Magazine - December 9, 2007 - (Page 28) MANHATTAN I EVERYTHING’S COOL: A TOXIC COMEDY ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING Street 12/11 City Lights, Documentary, B.O. $0.003 million, $24.98 DVD, NR. Adrift IN REVIEWS www.homemediamagazine.com N GRAHAM BALDWIN CHIANESE DOMINIC WILLIAM HEATHER o question, Everything’s Cool is a film with a message, and the message is clear: Everything is not cool for the future of the human race. With all the documentaries on global warming — mostly split between dire warnings and outright dismissals — this film studies the battle of conflicting scientific claims about the issue. Taking a page from Morgan Spurlock’s playbook, the film uses colorful graphics and animation to illustrate concepts that are difficult to imagine. The filmmakers leap right in with a fast-paced stream of vignettes of regular folks commenting on the issue, then move to longer profiles of experts working on the issue. They trace the issue back to 1987 — when Time magazine first put the greenhouse effect on the national ra- dar with a cover story — and look at who is funding the case against human causes of global warming. What they find are the anti-regulation Competitive Enterprise Institute, fossil-fuel producing companies and even the George W. Bush administration. While nobody blames the White House directly for global warming, the film spends a good amount of time on orders from White House offices to sanitize environmental reports and congressional testimony. Noting that global warming seems too abstract to most Americans, the filmmakers bring the issue to the common man by talking to snow groomers at a Utah ski resort, children in an Alaskan village who had to move because it was eroding away and whistleblower Rick Piltz, who left a cushy — if cerebral — administration job because he was told to squelch information on climate change. Perhaps most interesting is the examination of how the issue is changing the environmental movement, forcing activists to make the issue real to ordinary folks and show them why global warming is relevant to them. Because it examines the political battle, this film may end up preaching to the choir. But it is educational in its way, and the presentation is pretty accessible. It’s filled with interesting discussion points and a few of the lessheard points of view. – Holly J. Wagner QUICK TAKE ‘Futurama’ Goes Green The long-awaited return of “Futurama,” the recent release of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainments DTV movie Bender’s Big Score ($29.98), is sure to please both fans and environmentalists alike. The cardboard packaging touts a completely carbon neutral design, which is no surprise considering Al Gore’s involvement in the project (he voices himself in a cameo). And the movie? Pretty uneven and not as funny as the earlier TV show, but it’s good to see these characters back in action. – John Latchem I CITIZEN TANOUYE Prebook 12/11; Street Jan. 8 WGBH Boston, Documentary, $19.95 DVD, NR. T Rated version: Material Number: 68103264 UPC: 0-2519-50261-3-0 Unrated version: 2007 Theatrical Release! DVD Bonus Features: Deleted Scenes Spanish Subtitles Material Number: 68103408 UPC: 0-2519-50269-8-7 Pre-Order: 12/18/07 Street: 1/22/08 Distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment $24. 98 SRP www.screenmediafilms.net ©One Nine, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Design © 2007 Screen Media Films, LLC. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. his award-winning documentary takes a unique grassroots approach to exploring the experience of WWII-era Japanese internment camps, the all-Japanese 442nd Regimental Combat Team and, most specifically, Medal of Honor recipient Technical Sgt. Ted Tanouye. Unlike Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story, another PBS documentary of the same ilk, and Ken Burns’ epic The War, Citizen Tanouye puts one name to the many faces of the 442nd — the most decorated fighting regiment in U.S. Military history. Focusing on a group of eight ethnically diverse Torrance High School students, directors Robert Horsting and Craig Yahata use the upcoming unveiling of the Ted Tanouye Memorial on campus as an impetus for an in-depth look into Tanouye by following the students’ own investigation. With the help of superior production values such as crisp cinematography and good historic photos, the viewer is apt to hang on long enough to let the storyline develop into a surprisingly insightful and emotional journey into the past. Beginning with a search of the school’s yearbooks, old newspaper clippings and historic Internet sites, the students uncover a profile of Tanouye as an all-American boy who went off to war to fight and die for a country that put his parents in a prison camp. As their research goes deeper, the students discover not only what their town and its people were like back then, but how the war drew out prejudices. With their research in hand, the students move on to interview veterans of the 442nd, whose motto was “Go For Broke,” taken from the dying words of Tanouye. Extras include the Medal of Honor ceremony for Japanese American soldiers and their surviving families after 56 years of oversight by the U.S. Army, as well as the dedication of the Ted Tanouye Memorial on the 60th anniversary of his heroic actions on Hill 140 in Italy. Deleted scenes show how the students’ personal exploration has brought them new respect for those who fought in World War II. It goes to show the soldiers’ valorous actions will be remembered and carried on to future generations. – Brett Sporich 28 Home Media Magazine December 9–15, 2007 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.screenmediafilms.net
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